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Three idiots at once, myself included. Doing OW certification dive, first time in deep water (bottom fell off from ~50' to *very* deep water on a steep slope). The instructor set the anchor and got back on the boat. I was the first in the water and waiting for my "buddy" for this dive to...

Why do I think Hank's right, even if it seems wrong when I try to visualize it? 1 milliliter (ml) = 1 cubic centimeter (cc), and a liter includes 1000 ml (by definition); so a column of water 1 cm on a side would have to be 1000 cm (or 10 meters) tall. But when I imagine that column of water...

How much do you vary your depth, and how quickly up and down? Even in shallow water and doing no decompression dives, there is a greater risk of injury from repeated increasing and decreasing pressure. The more often you ascend and descend during one dive in shallow water, the less time there...

A feeding tube? I agree the term is often abused and it sounds a little melodramatic, but I think it has its place. The things that will keep you alive if you end up alone in the ocean are an exposure suit and flotation (which may be the suit). The things that keep you breathing underwater...

Propellers. If you ascend to the surface horizontally without being able to observe the surface 360 degrees around you, the answer is invariably propellers.

We're probably starting with very different assumptions about how negative you might be at 80'. I'm talking about warm water diving without a lot of neoprene to be compressed, and without a lot of weight to compensate for the neoprene, so it takes very little effort. I wouldn't make the same...

No, as I said I adjust my buoyancy for the depth where I am going to be for a while. So if I'm going to be cruising around at 80', I am going to be neutral at that depth. I'm talking about a vertical ascent from 80' or 60' to 20'. If I were following a slope to shallow water, I would vent...

I think I'm the person you are referring to. Actually, I have always carried very little weight. I also have very little use for a BC most of the time; I am not one to cycle hundreds of psi through a BC in the course of a dive, inflating and dumping and inflating and dumping air all the time...

That's exactly what I do now; it works very well for everything *except* reading gauges with my left eye, because I think we misjudged a little bit the correction required for the left eye. In every other way, it is very convenient - I can see when I take off my mask, I can see and wear cheap...

I bought a mask with a purge valve in it when they were a new thing. (BTW, nobody thought it was a "crutch" at the time; it was just another new idea that seemed to work.) The only thing that ever went wrong with it is that over a long period of years as the rubber deteriorated (they were all...

Depending on your location, different types of shrimp can make that popping sound (and lots of them in unison create that crackling popcorn popping effect) by snapping a claw so quickly that it shoots out a little jet of water, reducing the water pressure sufficiently in that exact spot to form...

Interesting how the shot of somebody who just happened to be in the background ended up almost perfectly centered in the picture!

Try getting ahead of the curve and equalize sooner and more frequently. A lot of people find it easier to equalize descending feet first, but you should be able to do it just as easily in a horizontal or head-down position if you start equalizing early and often. If you wait until the pressure...

I think I agree with those who suggest lightening up on the "death by SCUBA" angle; if there are kids in the class whose parents are divers, you don't want to make them worry that their parents are suicidal idiots. You probably don't need to plan for a whole lot, because the time will fly...

What they said about how efficiently water drains the heat from your body - it really is true, even in water that doesn't feel that cold at first, it happens a lot faster than you expect, and it can leave you swimming like a speared fish before you know it.

If the tank is already high on your back, is the harness like the DUI weight & trim, and can you adjust the height at which that weight is carried without interfering with your BP/W harness? Can you move *some* of that weight to a tank strap?

I'm waiting for the day when I can dive like a NASCAR driver, with the names of my many sponsors plastered all over the place. I like the idea of clipping everything in the pocket into a bungee loop off a D ring, instead of trying to clip each of them directly to a D ring. I hate clutter...

There may be something to the complacency thing; in climbing, most fatal accidents happen on relatively easy terrain, often after completing something of much greater difficulty. People relax and unrope and start moving too casually where they still need to be careful, and a little slip on...

There may be something to your hypothesis, if this is happening to you only in cold water, and you are not normally a cold water diver. Cold water on the face can trigger the so-called "mammalian diving reflex" and alter your breathing (the reflex is actually apnea, or holding your breath)...

I think you may need to provide some more information about exactly what happens in the deep end that is different from what happens in four feet of water. If your mask clearing technique is correct and is working in four feet of water, there is no reason in the world why the same technique...